10 • ANIMAL HUMANE SOCIETY MAGAZINE FALL 2010 /WINTER 2011 • www.animalhumanesociety.org

AHS has embarked on this multi-year initiative called Bound for Home. What exactly is Bound for Home?

For far too long humane societies, the Animal Humane Society being one of them, have put themselves out there as a solution to the problemof pet homelessness and most of the issues related to the welfare of animals. The reality is that we can’t do it alone. We can provide leadership,but the community must be a partner in the solutions to the challengesfaced by animals.

AHS has been in this community for more than 130 years and our organi-zation has done much to advance how the community treats companionanimals, but the reality is that unwanted animals and homelessness stillexist in our community. At AHS, we still receive far more animals surren-dered to us than the community is providing homes for — not enoughpeople are choosing to adopt. Because of this disparity, euthanasia exists.Bound for Home is a series of initiatives we have launched to do thingsdifferently for animals—with the community as our partner. We are asking for the community’s help to alter this imbalance.

What are you doing differently as an organization?

We brought in outside counsel — experts from the University of Califor-nia-Davis Shelter Medicine program who reviewed our operations. Weheard that there were a lot of areas in which we were doing extremelywell, which was wonderful, but we definitely had some areas which couldbe improved. Of course, that is always difficult for organizations that

strive to do their best to hear. But we took a hardlook at the situation for animals in our commu-nity and we were committed to take the next bigleap for long-term, sustainable change.

Since that time, all of our staff has been workingon initiatives that reduce the intake of animals,shorten the length of stay for animals, provide

greater enrichment for animals while they are with us, and reduce ourrates of euthanasia. This last year, we saw a seven percent rate of reduction in euthanasia and we expect to see further decreases as we implement all the operational aspects of Bound for Home.

Animal Humane Society CEO/President Janelle Dixon sat down to talk about the work of Animal Humane Society — including new initiatives to improve the quality of life for more animals.

Bound for HomeA conversation with Janelle Dixon

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Continued on next page.

Can you give us an example of one of UC Davis’s recommendations?

The footbaths in and out of our adoption centers are a great example.Why were we making people step in and out of footbaths everywhere, hin-dering their ability to access animals and adoption? We were reminded bythe consultants that we were attempting to prevent disease from ourleast likely source, people coming into our shelters to adopt, and that wewere actually setting up barriers for people to access the very animals we wanted them to adopt. As a result, we have removed the footbaths.

Housing for cats is another area in which we received recommendations.Rather than having more cat kennels we are looking at decreasing thetotal number and putting our resources toward increasing the size ofeach cat’s current space. This will result in less stress and reduced illnessfor the animals in the shelter reducing their length of stay and facilitatingquicker placement.

How do you, as an organization, get a new mindset to approach thecare for animals in a different framework?

I think change is never easy. It takes a special effort to engage an entireorganization in thinking differently, looking at issues from different per-spectives and coming up with new and different solutions—and then having the courage to implement them. You have to have a really strongbelief that what you’re doing is the right thing and be guided by that. Fortunately, we are united in our enthusiasm and optimism for what weare doing—board members, employees and volunteers alike.

Would more people choosing to adopt a shelter animal solve all of your problems?

It would certainly help but the solution is multi-faceted. Right now it isnot about there not being enough homes in the community, but the factthat there are not enough homes choosing to adopt. But we need tolook at the issue from a variety of perspectives. We need to see morepeople spay and neuter their pets to prevent unwanted litters. We needpeople to provide pet identification for their pet so if their pet is lostthe community can get that pet back home without it ever needing tocome to AHS or any other animal welfare organization for care.

This last year, we saw a seven percent rate of reduction in euthanasia and we are looking to

see further decreases as we implement all the operational

aspects of Bound for Home.

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Continued from previous page.

Next January you are going to change the intake procedures for surrendered animals and move to intake by appointment. What isthat and exactly how will that work?

As a staff we have examined the areas where we have the greatest potential to affect the overall outcomes for animals. One is by reducingthe number of animals that come in the door. A critical part of intake by appointment is a pre-intake process where before an individual evencomes to surrender an animal we find out why, what is the issue. Andhopefully for a percentage of those animals we can direct pet owners to resources that can help them solve the problem in a different wayother than surrendering.

Can you give us an example?

So it might be a cat that’s scratching the furniture and they don’t knowhow to fix the problem and it may seem that the simple solution is to surrender it and start with a new cat. But scratching is a natural behaviorand there are methods people can use to discourage undesired scratch-ing and encourage scratching in the appropriate place. There might be a cat that’s suddenly not using its litter box. It’s very possible there’s amedical problem and people might not know that. There could be a dogthat has some nuisance behaviors related to barking. Our Training and Behavior department could assist with that. The things that help animalsand people live together, that is what we can facilitate.

Also, through intake by appointment we have some measure of the flow of

animals coming into the shelter and can better control that. We will knowexactly when an animal is coming in and why. This allows us to providewhat is needed at the point of intake. Right now we have no control overwhen animals come to us. In addition, we will be able to get more detailedinformation about a pet regarding their behavior, health and personalitywhich will really help our efforts with prospective adopters.

This new process will mean we can improve our capacity to provide carefor the animals that need more, need something special. It also means wecan move animals more quickly to the adoption centers.

But, whether we like it or not, there will always be animals that have veryserious aggression issues or very serious health issues that are not ap-propriate for us to place with an individual or a family or another rescue.

Sixty-two percent of the animals AHS receives are cats. How willBound for Home benefit cats?

In this community we have been fortunate to see changes that have ben-efited dogs in the past 20 years. Leash laws and an emphasis on steriliza-tion have had a positive impact for dogs and because of that we have seena significant reduction of dogs coming into our shelters.

Frankly, it hasn’t had an impact for cats yet and we want to see thatchanged. For many people in the community, spay/neuter is an unattain-able need for their animal. There are many families or individuals with ani-mals they care for deeply, but they may not have the financial capacity toafford the surgery. But it’s important that we make it attainable for them.

This new process will mean we can improve our capacity to provide carefor the animals that need more, needsomething special. It also means we

can move animals more quickly to the adoption centers.

a conversation with Janelle Dixon

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How will you measure your success and outcomes?

Success to us means that we see a reduction in the number of animalscoming into our organization, a continued reduction in euthanasia anda dramatic increase in the number of animals we spay and neuterthrough the public program. It will also be measured by the number of people taking advantage of the supportive services we offer and bythose choosing not to surrender their animals. The most importantmeasure will be if every animal in our community has a home.

These efforts will take sometime and we will need thecommunity’s help every stepof the way.

Anything else?

The other day an AHS donorsaid to me, “Living in the shelter is like living in ahotel as compared to livingin a home.” And that’s

exactly true. It’s not quite as nice in a hotel and you can make do, but it’s not like living in a home. And at some point you want to be home. Bound for Home is going to help us make that happen for more animals.

If we can stop the numbers of animals being born we can reduce the num-bers of animals coming through our doors. To us, every unwanted kitten bornand placed is an adult cat sitting in the shelter waiting for a home.

Our plans include a mobile unit that will begin providing sterilization serv-ices to the public next spring. We also plan to open a spay/neuter clinic atour Golden Valley location. These services will be available to members ofthe public who cannot afford to get their animal sterilized and qualify forother social service programs. We will continue to spay/neuter every com-panion animal before it is adopted, but these additional resources will be a much needed resource available to privately owned animals.

We also want to see the length of stay for cats decreased in our shelters. Although we have no terms or time limits for how long an animal remainswith us, we wish to see animals placed more quickly.